Parent of DSCC to cut costs to aid Pentagon

The parent agency of Defense Supply Center Columbus will cut costs so the Pentagon can shift more resources to front-line troops, Department of Defense officials said in Columbus yesterday.

The parent agency of Defense Supply Center Columbus will cut costs so the Pentagon can shift more resources to front-line troops, Department of Defense officials said in Columbus yesterday.

The Pentagon’s $700?billion budget might grow slightly in the next few years to deal with national security threats, said Undersecretary Robert Hale, the Department of Defense’s chief financial officer. But administrative and support spending, including some handled through the Columbus facility, needs to come down.

“We owe the American people every effort to be efficient,” Hale said.

The cuts won’t affect staffing levels in Columbus for at least the next several years, said Navy Vice Adm. Alan J. Thompson, the director of the Defense Logistics Agency, DSCC’s parent. The agency, though, wants to reduce the price for military supplies by 10?percent, among other money-saving measures.

Thompson and Hale made their comments during the last day of the Defense Logistics Agency Enterprise and Supplier Conference & Exhibition at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

The conference brings together the logistics agency — which obtains food, fuel, vehicles, clothing and other supplies for the military — and the businesses that produce those supplies. The agency is responsible for $41?billion in transactions a year, Thompson said.

About 2,400 people work in Columbus for the Defense Logistics Agency. The facility they work in is the Defense Supply Center Columbus on the East Side; the division itself is now called DLA Land and Maritime. It handles all of the spare parts for every vehicle and boat in the U.S. military.

Another 3,000 people work at DSCC for the separate Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which handles payments of military contracts and other jobs.

This week’s conference is the first of its kind, said John Foreman, a spokesman for DLA Land and Maritime. It gives business representatives the opportunity to network with a huge potential customer, the Department of Defense. It also has given the logistics agency a chance to talk to the businesses about reducing their prices, officials said.

This week’s focus on efficiency comes after Defense Secretary Robert Gates partially detailed a plan this month to cut overhead costs at the Pentagon. He said that two Pentagon agencies, thousands of contractor jobs and 50 admiral and general positions would be eliminated. Money saved with those and other cuts will go toward military operations, he said.

Hale, during an address to the conference yesterday, said he knows that asking Congress and the country to spend $700?billion on defense in these economic conditions is a “tough sell.” Cuts will help demonstrate that the Pentagon is serious about being more streamlined.

“We have got to find a way for every defense dollar to count,” he said.